Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Fact Check: Sen. Obama's Inaccurate 'Desperate' Ad

"Desperate"

"After 18 debates with 2 more coming, Hillary says Barack Obama is ducking debates? It's the same old politics. Here's the truth."

"Obama has a plan to protect social security benefits & the current retirement age. Hillary doesn't."

[On screen: Obama has plan to protect benefits & Retirement age

DNC Debate, 9/26/07]

Hillary has a plan to address social security: she wants to return to fiscal responsibility first. "Don't you believe all these people running around crying wolf about Social Security. That is exactly what they're doing. They're trying to get people confused and upset and agree to a bad deal. When I am president, we'll have our priorities in order. We will return to fiscal responsibility and fair tax policies first, and then we will address the long-term challenges facing Social Security. When my husband left office, because we had a balanced budget and a surplus, there was a plan in place to extend the solvency of Social Security until 2055. That gives us plenty of time to figure out what else we need to do." [Hillary's Remarks, 10/9/07]

Hillary will create bipartisan process to address social security to address social security. "But I am strongly advocating a bipartisan process, similar to what we had in '83, and when that gets set up, as I hope it will be when I'm president, then I'm going to see what the bipartisan members are going to come up with." [Washington Post, 10/9/07]

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman praises Hillary's approach. KRUGMAN: Yeah, Social Security, if you go through the federal government, piece-by-piece, and ask which programs are seriously under-funded and which are close to being completely funded, Social Security is one of the best. It's not even for certain that Social Security has a problem. Why on earth - and, of course, it's something that the right has always wanted to kill, not because it doesn't work, but because it does. And for Obama to go after this program, at this time, you just have to wonder. All of my progressive friends are saying what on Earth is going through his mind to raise this issue.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you think basically the Hillary Clinton position, which we take care of it by fiscal responsibility, and basically it'll take care of itself, we can look at some small fixes is the right one?

KRUGMAN: Yeah. She is. [ABC This Week, 10/28/07]

Obama agreed with Hillary's approach, before he released an ad criticizing it. Everything should be on the table. I think we should approach it the same way Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan did back in 1983. They came together. I don't want to lay out my preferences beforehand, but what I know is that Social Security is solvable. It is not as difficult a problem as we're going to have with Medicaid and Medicare. [ABC This Week, 5/14/07]

"On health care, even Bill Clinton's Labor Secretary says Obama covers more people than Hillary."

[On screen: Obama covers 'more people' than Hillary

Robert Reich Clinton Labor Secretary]

Health Care experts agree, Obama's plan leaves at least 15 million people out.

Paul Krugman: Clinton's plan 'would cover almost twice as many of those now uninsured as a plan resembling Mr. Obama's.' "Specifically, new estimates say that a plan resembling Mrs. Clinton's would cover almost twice as many of those now uninsured as a plan resembling Mr. Obama's... And both plans seek to make insurance affordable to lower-income Americans. The Clinton plan is, however, more explicit about affordability, promising to limit insurance costs as a percentage of family income. And it also seems to include more funds for subsidies. [New York Times, 2/4/08]

Concord Monitor: 'Gruber estimated that 15 million people would remain uninsured under Obama's plan.'"Jonathan Gruber, a health economist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on the Massachusetts plan, said a mandate means "the difference between universal or near-universal coverage. Obama would have a large expansion, better than anything the Republicans have, but not universal coverage," Gruber said. "You can't get it without a mandate; it's just not possible." Gruber estimated that 15 million people would remain uninsured under Obama's plan." [Concord Monitor, 12/26/07]

Len Nichols, Jonathan Gruber and Mark Pauly: 'even with other cost saving measures and a child mandate, we think that it is very likely that a least 15 million American would remain uninsured.' "Recent estimates suggest that a plan with uniform generous subsidies but without a mandate would cover no more than one-half of the uninsured in the U.S. Even with other cost-saving measures and a child mandate, we think that it is very likely that at least 15 million Americans would remain uninsured." [New America Foundation Policy Brief, 12/06/07]

Jonathan Holohan of the Urban Institute: 'Obama would still leave about 22 million, 23 million, but he has a mandate for children, about 9 million uninsured kids, so assuming you get most of them, you get pretty close to 15 million.' [New Republic, 12/03/07]

Wall Street Journal: 'Mrs. Clinton charges that Mr. Obama's plan would leave 15 million people without insurance. Outside experts agree that number is in the ballpark.' [Wall Street Journal, 12/04/07]

Washington Post: 'The Obama plan could leave a third of those currently uninsured lacking coverage.' [Washington Post, 6/9/07]

"And Obama sponsored a bill to end tax breaks for oil companies."

[On screen: End tax breaks for oil companies

Senate Bill 115 1/4/07]

Obama voted for Bush's 2005 energy bill that contained $6 billion in oil and gas subsidies. In 2005, Obama voted twice for Bush's Energy Bill, HR 6. It contained $6 billion in oil and gas subsidies. Hillary voted against the bill. [HR 6, Votes #212 and #213, 7/29/05; Public Citizen, 8/2005]

Public Citizen: 'Reflecting the fact that energy companies helped write this legislation, the energy bill lavishes these lucrative corporations with billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies.' [Public Citizen, "The Best Energy Bill Corporations Could Buy," citizen.org]

Thomas Friedman: This bill is what the energy expert Gal Luft calls ''the sum of all lobbies.'' [Thomas Friedman, New York Times, 8/5/05]

Washington Post: "The energy bill, touted as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil or moderate gasoline prices, has been turned into a pinata of perks for energy industries." [Washington Post, 7/30/05]

"Tired of the same politics? Vote for change we can believe in."

"I'm Barack Obama and I approve of this message"

[[Watch the ad] here.]